Slowing traffic, paving roads among 2025 Deer Isle select board priorities

Newly sworn in after being elected, Patricia “Patty” Oliver was ready for business at her inaugural meeting of the Deer Isle Select Board on Thursday, March 6. The three members of the select board are now Oliver, Peter Perez and Ronald “Ronnie” Eaton.

- JENNA LOOKNER

After unanimously voting Eaton to continue serving as chairman, the board took up a number of items, including road paving and striping, a topic that Oliver is familiar with given her service as Stonington road foreman for three years.

Among the topics discussed by the board were individual priorities for 2025. Town Manager Jim Fisher asked each board member to name several items that topped their lists of concerns or goals for the town during the ensuing year.

For Eaton, seeing guard rails at Mill Pond is a safety priority; Perez and Oliver agreed that traffic calming measures are needed to make Deer Isle Village safe for both drivers and pedestrians.

"Lower the speed limit in the village," Oliver said. She added that she sees culverts, ditches, trees, and overall road conditions as priorities.

"I don’t think a lot of people recognize those things," Eaton said.

"It’s because I worked on roads," Oliver responded.